COHASSET COMMENTARY: Your vote next week is important

Sunday

May 4, 2014 at 11:00 AM

Your vote will influence water rates and delivery, road repairs, ambulance response, library hours, meals on wheels and village parking. Your vote will address big needs like keeping the channel dredged so our fishing fleet has a homeport; it will affect the nature and consistency of the school budget; it will address smaller concerns like making certain that street signs and stop signs get installed or replaced.

Steve Gaumer

In nine days’ time, Cohasset will hold its annual election. This letter is a gentle reminder that elections, and your vote, matter.

Saturday, May 10 may be a tempting spring day, filled with soccer, baseball, yard work and plenty of other distractions. Please make a stop at town hall one of your first activities. Your vote is your voice in the matters that affect you and your family. Your vote will influence the nature and elevation of discussion about your taxes; it will help determine how effectively we put our funds to work.

Your vote will influence water rates and delivery, road repairs, ambulance response, library hours, meals on wheels and village parking. Your vote will address big needs like keeping the channel dredged so our fishing fleet has a homeport; it will affect the nature and consistency of the school budget; it will address smaller concerns like making certain that street signs and stop signs get installed or replaced.

When you cast your vote, you are voting for leadership. Ultimately, your elected officials are charged with setting the course for the town and directing the activity to keep us on that course. The task requires listening more than talking; it requires engagement and presence more than absence; leadership requires one to act in the best interest of the whole, even when it may be uncomfortable to do so. Leadership requires the discipline to withhold judgment until all relevant facts are assessed. It requires the wisdom to accept that the facts may require a modified conclusion. It requires that you display deference and respect, always.

There is an adage that says “We elect the government we deserve” and I do believe that is true. In our tiny town, we have elected officials by margins as small as tens of votes. Last year, just four votes determined the election of one selectman’s seat.

Our little town is a $44 million enterprise — most of which is your tax money — and employs more than 300 people. It is the selectman’s job to recommend how to spend those funds this year and for years to come, so it stands to reason that your vote on these matters is pretty damn important.

If you care about where you live, its schools, our quiet streets, or the soccer and baseball fields on which your kids play, then cast your vote for the leaders of your choice. You will be glad you did, and so will your neighbors.